This invention relates to children""s construction sets, and, more particularly, to an interactive construction and play set that exhibits a virtual intelligence and interacts with and/or responds to the player during construction and in continuing play.
Increasingly, children are computer literate at an early age, some as young as two or three years old. They are wise to the electronics of their environment, and, some may say, smarter than children of prior generations. They""ve been exposed to toys, playthings and other consumer goods that talk like a human and make sound effects. Yet electronics has produced far more than simply sound effects and human speech to computers, appliances, toys, cars, and other electronic products found in the environment. Through the use of microprocessors and/or microcomputers, controllers of those electronic products are given the ability to store programming logic, sound effects and speech. Those electronic products and devices appear to be smart, possess intelligence, and are able to interact and converse with the product users. Those products are made xe2x80x9cartificially intelligentxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cvirtually realxe2x80x9d; and seem to xe2x80x9cknowxe2x80x9d what the product users are doing or have done in the past.
Because children are products of the era into which they are born, they easily assimilate the technology that surrounds them from birth. Today""s kids therefore expect to be able to interact with the objects in their environment, particularly with their playthings and toys. They are as comfortable with the computer as the telephone, and can learn to press the keys of a keyboard to create cause and effect and interaction with a display screen long before they even learn to write. As a consequence one finds that children become bored more quickly with conventional playthings than the children of prior generations. That change in interest is seen in the toy marketplace. Manufacturers of conventional toys appear to be losing business and market share to manufacturers of xe2x80x9csmartxe2x80x9d electronic toys, video games, computer CD-ROMS and other items that the children find more compelling.
Examples of this new era is the PETE TM program from Mindscape and Creatures(trademark) program from Mindscape that electronically bring xe2x80x9cvirtual lifexe2x80x9d to computer creatures. The Creatures toy is described by the seller as even having xe2x80x9cdigital DNAxe2x80x9d and artificial intelligence to elicit a child""s interest. Electronics, including the programmed microprocessor, have brought the same kind of xe2x80x9cvirtual lifexe2x80x9d to stand-alone toys. The Tomagotchi(trademark) virtual pet, the Manor(trademark) pet, and the Gigabit Pets(trademark) are handheld xe2x80x9cvirtual petsxe2x80x9d that recently swept the consumer marketplace, creating a trend and consumer demand for interactive xe2x80x9cvirtualxe2x80x9d smart toys that persists to the present.
A more recent example of stand-alone smart toys are the xe2x80x9cAmazing Amy(trademark)xe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cAmazing Ally(trademark)xe2x80x9d dolls marketed in the U.S. by the Playmates Toys Inc. Those dolls contain microprocessors that are programmed to give the dolls a virtual intelligence. The Amazing Amy doll is able to detect the type and kind of play food or appliance (eg. simulated items supplied with the doll) placed in the mouth of the doll, to voice requests for certain foods, to voice objection if fed a food that differs from the food requested, plays games with the child and voice many other statements, allowing the doll in many respects to simulate a living child. The Amazing Ally also simulates a living child and interacts with the child. Children find the experience with such dolls exciting and real; and those toys have in fact recaptured the interest of older girls who have become bored with conventional dolls (sic non-virtually smart) offered by other toy manufacturers.
The practical effect of the foregoing is that today""s children expect to also interact with toys that also appear to be xe2x80x9csmart.xe2x80x9d Lacking xe2x80x9csmartxe2x80x9d toys, children quickly turn to computer and video games, music, and high tech electronic gadgets for entertainment or instead are spending their money on clothing and accessories, music, movies, and fast food.
The shift in interest has not gone unnoticed by toy manufacturers, who to avoid becoming obsolete, are seeking ways to rekindle a child""s interest in the manufacturer""s toys. One such example is in construction sets, such as building blocks. Those construction sets typically contain plastic blocks that the child may attach to one another and to a base to build various figures and structures, effectively creating a setting. The blocks (and base) frictionally attach to one another by means of coupling grips (as may be formed of sockets, bars or the like) wherein the coupling grips, located on the under side of a block, engage with coupling pins or studs arranged evenly and in parallel rows and columns on the top side of another block (and/or on the base). Until the present, construction sets of the foregoing type have long served and continue to serve to interest those children inclined to enjoy building things.
Those construction sets presently offer only two dimensions of play: The primary play is construction, in which the child constructs a building, vehicle, or other structure from scratch by assembling together a kit of pieces and parts. The secondary play is to use the thing that was constructed for play. The child uses its imagination to create adventures inspired by the theme associated with the construction set (sic the structure which can be built from the blocks or play pieces intended by the theme).
Attempting to make construction sets more compelling, a leading manufacturer, the LEGO Group, which markets under the LEGO(copyright) brand name, has been adding attractive brands and copyrighted characters familiar to children to the product and the theme of the product. That company has also included some simple electronics in their stand-along products such as a flashing light and a siren sound in a preschool construction set of a fire truck or rescue vehicle in theme. Further, that company also introduced a complex robotic system that requires a computer interface. Older children and adults must first build complex robotic products and then create a computer program on their personal computer (xe2x80x9cPCxe2x80x9d) to control the constructed robotic product. That computer program is then downloaded into a xe2x80x9cbrainxe2x80x9d that controls the movement within the robotic device. As evident from the patent literature, the Lego Group xe2x80x9celectrifiedxe2x80x9d construction blocks, perhaps as part of the foregoing effort, to integrate electrical paths through the individual blocks in order to route electricity, such as by attaching a conductors on the studs of a block (and employing coupling sockets containing electrical conductors). It thus appears generally known to provide electrically operated elements within the construction block set as demonstrates the engineering feasibility of allowing the child to mimic an electrical construction project.
What foregoing feats of engineering appears to lack is the xe2x80x9cmagicxe2x80x9d of any xe2x80x9cvirtualxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9csmartxe2x80x9d interaction between the product being constructed and any characters that are supplied in the constructed product and the player-builder. Although the child may learn to follow directions and achieve satisfaction in the building of a structure, and may use imagination to create settings, scenes in which to play with the structure that one has built, that alone does not pique a child""s imagination in the same way as occurs with the Amazing Amy doll, earlier mentioned. Instead the child is in full control of the play scene and the events that are to occur.
The construction set cannot xe2x80x9ctalk backxe2x80x9d or take any action. The set possesses no seeming initiative of the kind found in other electronic toys and in application programs of general or special purpose computers (video games). The child is not faced with the excitement and challenge of dealing with the unexpected. As an advantage, the present invention offers an interactive arrangement for the child, allows the construction set to appear to be virtually alive and to be artificially intelligent and speak, and affords play that offers a greater challenge, is more compelling and basically provides more fun for the child.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to enhance interest in and excitement in play of children""s construction sets by bringing the construction set into the xe2x80x9cvirtualxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9csmartxe2x80x9d electronic age.
An additional object of the invention is to imbue a child""s construction set with features that confront the child with a sense of unpredictability to events occurring in fantasy play and challenge the child.
A further object of the invention is to remove full control of the events of play in a child""s construction set from the player and place some of that control within the construction set.
A still additional object of the invention is to provide a play environment for a child""s construction set that incorporates characters and other play figures with a virtual intelligence.
A further object of the invention is to permit a construction set to provide speech messages, statements and/or sound effects and/or visual cues to the player both during construction and during play with the constructed structures.
And an ancillary object of the invention is to permit the child to simulate the remote control of another play piece or play pieces mounted in the construction set using another one of the play pieces mounted in the construction set as a simple remote controller.
In accordance with the foregoing advantages and objects, the invention is realized in any standard child""s construction set by incorporating therewith a programmed controller, a speaker and special (xe2x80x9csmartxe2x80x9d) play pieces. The smart play pieces contain controller readable identification indicium. The controller is able to access and read that indicium to identify the play pieces and is able to determine the location of each such play piece installed on the base of the construction set. With such knowledge, the controller may retrieve from memory and issue, exhibit, speech messages or other audible effects through the speaker. Some play pieces comprise character figures, and the speech messages and/or audible effects exhibited are able to create a virtual being of such figures.
In accordance with a further aspect to the invention, some of such smart play pieces also incorporate peripheral devices, electrically actuated devices which the controller is able to actuate in accordance with action prescribed in the controller program, either at the initiative of the program and/or in response to detection of an action occurring at a separate play piece, such as a player input. In a more specific aspect, the controller operates an electrical device, such as lamp or a motor, contained in one play piece when the player supplies an input in another play piece, such as operating a switch.
The controller provides a virtual intelligence and interaction between the child and the playset and its characters. The memory of the controller contains many words and/or phrases of speech and sound effects related to specific play pieces and characters which may be communicated to the player; and, of those, a plurality of speech phrases and sound effects unique to specific play pieces and characters, depending on the play situation or mode of play for the construction set. The controller may select from a variety of stored messages, and various logic branches of pre-programmed play patterns, adventures, stories, or games, adding a sense of unpredictability to the play patterns and avoiding the repetition that dulls interest in a toy. Games may incorporate invisible alien beings or forces whose presence is felt by the player through the sounds generated and/or animated graphics presented on a display, and involve the player in defending against those inherently evil beings and forces.
The controller also allows activities, initiated by the players placement of characters or smart play pieces at certain locations on the base of the construction set or the players operation of various types of switches, all of which cause interactive responses by the construction set and the characters positioned therein, or, in accordance with an additional aspect to the invention, by remotely positioned construction sets and any characters therein.
The foregoing and additional objects and advantages of the invention together with the structure characteristic thereof, which was only briefly summarized in the foregoing passages, becomes more apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the detailed description of a preferred embodiment, which follows in this specification, taken together with the illustration thereof presented in the accompanying drawings.